


Useless, But Beautiful

by imkerfuffled



Series: 25 Days of Ficlet Prompts [5]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Natasha Romanov's Arrow Necklace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 07:43:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3373388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imkerfuffled/pseuds/imkerfuffled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha has her arrow necklace, Clint has an hourglass on his armguard. If anybody notices, they don't mention it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Useless, But Beautiful

Natasha Romanoff was the least sentimental person on the planet. Ask anybody. She didn’t care for bells and whistles on anything, and if it wasn’t absolutely necessary she didn’t want it. 

So if anybody noticed the necklace, they didn’t mention it. 

It was small, inconspicuous, and elegant —exactly the sort of thing Natasha _would_ like if she was prone to sentimentality. 

Some people at SHIELD thought it hid a poisoned dart in its shaft. Others thought it _was_ a poisoned dart. Both were wrong; the tiny silver arrow held neither poison nor barb. It simply hung, nearly invisible, around her neck. Useless, but beautiful. 

She only wore it on missions without Hawkeye. If anybody noticed that, they didn’t mention it either. 

Coulson knew, but then Coulson knew most things. The first time she wore it in front of him, his eyes darted down to the necklace then back to her face before he gave her the famed Coulson smirk, complete with raised eyebrows. She threw a Captain America trading card at him. 

The only other person to acknowledge its existence to her was Steve. Most others were too afraid to. 

“Is that…” he gestured to it once after nearly ten minutes of poorly concealed staring. Natasha pretended to be confused, and Steve never mentioned it again. 

… 

Clint Barton was sentimental, but only in certain ways. He was less likely to _do_ sentimental things than _keep_ sentimental things, and he even then would never admit to it. If someone pointed out the boxes he kept filled with mementos and trinkets that people had given him over the years, he would claim he was just too lazy to throw them out. 

So if anybody noticed the hourglass they didn’t mention it. 

It was small and easily overlooked when he drew back his bow, but it was there: a simple hourglass pattern stamped into his armguard. 

Some people at SHIELD thought the armguard was a gift from someone. After all, the amount of thought and initiative involved in getting it customized didn’t coincide with his brand of sentimentality. Other people thought the only person who could have given it to him was Back Widow, and that idea was as ridiculous as her buying jewelry. Both were wrong. 

He only wore it on missions without Black Widow. If anybody noticed that they didn’t mention it either. 

Coulson knew, but then Coulson had helped him make it. When Clint first came to him and awkwardly, with much embarrassed mumbling and neck rubbing, asked if he could get the symbol put on some part of his uniform, Coulson was the one to suggest the armguard. He also asked if Natasha knew about it, for which Clint threw a vintage spy watch at him. 

The only other person who acknowledged its existence to him was his dog, Lucky. He tried to eat it, and Clint refused to give him any pizza for a week.


End file.
